Swiping With Sandpaper

Yeeeee-ouch!!!!!

I think this guy got it just about right:

Fluffy Toilet Paper and Old Growth Trees

Think about that for a minute. Majesty being sacrificed so you can wipe your ass, America. That really says it all about our decadent culture.

"Environmentalists scold makers of plush toilet paper; They advocate products made of recycled fibers" by David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post | September 27, 2009

ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. - Toilet paper is far from the biggest threat to the world’s forests: Together with facial tissue, it accounts for 5 percent of the US forest products industry, according to industry figures. Paper and cardboard packaging make up 26 percent of the industry, although more than half is made from recycled products. Newspapers account for 3 percent.

But environmentalists say 5 percent is too much. Felling these trees removes a valuable scrubber of carbon dioxide, they say. If the trees come from “farms’’ in places such as Brazil, Indonesia, or the southeastern United States, natural forests are being displaced. If they come from Canada’s forested north - a major source of imported wood pulp - ecosystems valuable to bears, caribou, and migratory birds are being damaged.

And, activists say, there’s just the foolish idea of the thing: old trees cut down for the briefest and most undignified of ends....

I use the newspaper now. No, I really do. Ink washes off.

The reason for this fight lies in toilet paper engineering....

Big tissue makers say they’ve tried to make their products as green as possible, including by buying more wood pulp from forest operations certified as sustainable.

But despite environmentalists’ concerns, they say, customers are unwavering in their desire for the softest paper possible.

Yup, it is ALWAYS YOUR FAULT, consumer! ALWAYS YOUR FAULT!

“That’s a segment [of consumers] that is quite demanding of products that are soft,’’ said James Malone, a spokesman for Georgia-Pacific. Sales figures seem to make that clear....

I admit, it is a sensitive area.

Last month, Greenpeace announced an agreement it said would change this industry from the inside. The environmental group had spent 4 1/2 years attacking Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Kleenex and Cottonelle toilet paper, for getting wood from old-growth forests in Canada. But the group said it is calling off the “Kleercut’’ campaign: Kimberly-Clark had agreed to make its practices greener....

Greenpeace waving the white flag, 'eh?

Must have had to use the bathroom.

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